The deal that made superstar defencemen Quinn Hughes a member of the Minnesota Wild last week sent hockey historians — well, one of them anyway — scurrying to see how many other Norris Trophy winners have been traded.
The answer is surprising.
Just 33 players have won the Norris, as the National Hockey League’s best defenceman — 25 retired and 8 active. Of the 25 retired trophy winners, only three of them were never traded at some point in their careers; four if you count Bobby Orr, who went from Boston to Chicago as a “free agent” before there were free agents. The other 22 were all traded at some point in their careers.
The three who weren’t traded could be answers to a trivia question: Jacques Laperriere, Denis Potvin and Nicklas Lidstrom. Meanwhile, seven-time winner Doug Harvey was traded three times. Ray Bourque, who won five Norris Trophies with Boston, finished his career in Colorado. Paul Coffey, the best defenceman Edmonton has ever had and a three-time winner, was traded eight times.
The eight Norris Trophy winners still playing can, of course, still be traded. Three have been: Hughes, Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns. The 26-year-old Hughes was more than Vancouver’s best defenceman, until last week. He was their generational player, their best in the 55 seasons they’ve been around.
In today’s vernacular, players are being able to “walk the line” — dancing along the opposition’s blueline as if the puck was his toy only. Hughes didn’t walked the line, he ran it. For those who remember the defenceman who changed hockey by re-setting the pace, Hughes was the Canucks’ Bobby Orr. And now that he has been traded, for a package that’s the equivalent of four first-round draft choices, he joins the other Norris footnotes — award winners whose silverware wasn’t enough to keep them with one team.
Only three players in the Canucks history spent their entire careers in Vancouver: the Sedin twins and Stan Smyl. Given his talent level;, it was widely anticipated that Hughes would be number four.
In NHL history, 131 players who played 10 seasons or more did it with one team. Depending on whether longevity is measured in seasons or games, the all-time leader is either Detroit’s Alex Delvecchio (24 seasons) or Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom (1,564 games). They’re two members of the exclusive club of 12 players who played two decades or more with only one team, from Montreal’s Jean Beliveau to Patrick Elias of New Jersey.
The big bucks and the evolution of free agency limits opportunities for players to have one-team careers. Not surprisingly the teams with the most players who never moved for at least 10 seasons are all the Original Six — Montreal, Boston, Detroit, New York, Chicago and Toronto, in that order.
However, there may be a changing of the guard on the horizon.
Alex Ovechkin, Anze Kopitar and Sidney Crosby are fourth, sixth and eighth in the games played exclusively with one team. In seasons, Ovechkin and Crosby are playing their 21st seasons with Washington and Pittsburgh, respectively, one more than Kopitar in Los Angeles.
However, even though they are superstars, the loyalty that comes with playing for one team can change quickly.
Just ask Quinn Hughes.
